How to Practice ‘Good Materialism’
The pure fact of buying things and getting excited by possessions is not the real problem
It doesn’t seem to make sense to suggest that there might be such a thing as “good materialism” — after all, surely materialism is just plain bad? When people want to pinpoint the root cause of corruption in our age, they generally only need to point the finger at our attachment to material things. We’re apparently sick because we’re so materialistic.
It can seem as if we’re faced with a stark choice. Either you can be materialistic: obsessed with money and possessions, shallow, and selfish. Or, you can reject materialism, be good, and focus on more important matters of the spirit.
But most of us are, in our hearts, stuck somewhere between these two choices, which is uncomfortable. We are still enmeshed in the desire to possess — but we are encouraged to feel rather bad about it.
Yet, crucially, it’s not actually materialism — the pure fact of buying things and getting excited by possessions — that’s ever really the problem. We’re failing to make a clear distinction between good and bad versions of materialism.
Let’s try to understand good materialism through a slightly unusual route: religion. Because we see them as focused exclusively…
